Loving Our International Neighbors

I found myself at the local pizza place a few doors down from the office a few weeks ago.  In many ways it was typical of any other mom and pop restaurant around the country, but at the same time it was atypical.  A European League soccer game played on the television.  Behind the counter workers from Pakistan, Egypt and Nepal served up the food (which would explain the soccer game).

 Our lives have this same atypical flavor as well.  On Sunday evenings we are privileged to welcome two El Salvadorians and a young man of Chinese heritage.  At the church service we are greeted by a Filipino couple.  Our neighbors have been Nepalese and Mexican.  The international community has come to our town, our neighborhood, our church and our home.

 Atypical is quickly becoming typical.  What I am wondering is how the church will respond to the world coming to our neighborhoods.  Will we welcome, help and encourage, or will we isolate, ignore and find offense?  They don’t belong here.  They have strange ways.  They make us uncomfortable.  They are not like us. Will we be "ugly Americans?"

 We first came across the term “ugly Americans” when we studied at the Center for Intercultural Training while preparing for our own cross-cultural experience.  It describes those who travel abroad with an attitude of arrogance that translates into treating others as inferiors.  It’s more common than you might think, even among Christians.

 Do you find it ironic that the church spends millions of dollars sending representatives to the world but balks when the world moves in next door?  I guess that shouldn’t surprise us.   It has always been much easier to love those in distant lands than to love the neighbor next door.  Yet, in a compelling story of the foreign Samaritan, Jesus challenges this thinking.

 Our international neighbors are the masters students, the migrant workers, the business executives, the restaurant owners, the second generation Americans, the tourists and the undocumented immigrants.  All await our kindness.  All await the love of a “good Samaritan” for our international neighbors.